On the Saturday of the Outcasts Highland Fling, Ben and I went for a day on the River Alness. It's a lovely wee river which has lots of promise.....
I say promise as we caught nowt. Ben had a pull at the very top of beat 4 and I managed to lose a respectable brown/sea trout due to not paying attention when I should have been. I saw one small fish move, but that was it for the day.
To my mind it wanted at least another 8 inches of water than we had on the day, we bumped into Roger Dowsett who confirmed a splash of rain wouldn't go amiss and we were maybe a wee bit early - things will get going in a fortnight or so. It was interesting chatting to Roger about the river, it's water that I will try and fish again this year if the opportunity of a late availability day (not always on FishPal) comes along.
If you've not been I would say it is worth a speculative visit (if you're in the area and there's been rain). Loads of wee pools and runs and some great water to fish, but don't bother with anything more than a small double hander, a switch rod or maybe a single hander as (in my opinion) you really will not need it. I used an Orvis Helios 9.5ft #6wt with a home made shooting head matched to some 5ft polyleaders and I felt distinctly 'over-gunned' at times. However, you will need a four wheel drive to get to much of the fishing, at least on beat 4 anyway.
Some pics:
(http://i53.tinypic.com/2chx0fq.jpg)
(http://i54.tinypic.com/15coim9.jpg)
(http://i51.tinypic.com/4g50g.jpg)
Like I said, lovely spot to fish - just a shame there were no Salmon about :z6
H :z3